From Coca-Cola and General Motors to much smaller regional firms, sponsors knew the appeal of ''The Intimidator'' was fuel for sales of anything from fried chicken to cars to soft drinks.

With Earnhardt's death, those same sponsors are moving quickly to pull ads and revamp promotional campaigns.

Veteran motorsports marketing executive Tom Cotter estimated Earnhardt's name was worth at least $20 million a year in sponsorships.

''Every sponsor has a crisis plan on file that they hope they never have to open,'' said Cotter, the chairman of SFX/Cotter Group, a Harrisburg motorsports marketing firm. ''Right now, they are canceling ads, stopping print runs and destroying promotional materials.''

NASCAR race fan Kevin Fyke of Decatur, Ill., looks at a Dale Earnhardt soft drink machine Monday at Racers Performance Memorabilia in Mount Zion, Ill. Besides his seven Winston Cup titles, Dale Earnhardt also proved he was the man to beat in the marketing world. Now with his untimely death in the season-opening Daytona 500, sponsors are moving fast to pull their ads and rethink promotional campaigns.Kelly J. Huff/AP

Cotter has some experience in the unfortunate task of dealing with the death of a popular racer. In 1994, his agency was handling the marketing for Country Time Lemonade, which sponsored Neil Bonnett's race team.

Bonnett, one of Earnhardt's closest friends, was killed on Feb. 11, 1994, during a practice run for the upcoming Daytona 500.

''Country Time had just launched a huge national promotion,'' Cotter said Tuesday. ''They came to me said I should do what needs to be done. They said money was no object. Those were the most special words a client could tell an agency.''

With the company's blessing, Cotter decided to go ahead with the campaign and donate the proceeds to charity. It was a big success and it became a case study in crisis management, he said.

Earnhardt was one of 11 racers used in Coke ads that began running before the Daytona 500. His picture appeared on vending machines around the country. Now Coke executives are going to have to decide what to do with the campaign.

''Not taking away from any of the other (drivers), but Dale Earnhardt was bigger than life, no question about it. He's the star,'' Lauren Steele, a Coke Consolidated spokesperson who twice handed Earnhardt the Coca-Cola 600 trophy, told The Charlotte Observer.

And Earnhardt's connections in the business world run deep, from his race teams, a Chevrolet car dealership and his work with R.J. Reynolds Tobacco to Bass Pro Shops Outdoor World.

Bass Pro Shops Outdoor World was running a promotion offering customers the chance to win NASCAR tickets and meet Earnhardt. Company spokesman Larry Whiteley said the in-store messages have been changed and advertisements pulled.

Whiteley said Earnhardt was a perfect fit for the company's sportsman image.

''He loved the outdoors, he hunted and fished,'' Whiteley said Tuesday. ''And his fans were our kind of customers.''

In Winston-Salem, executives at R.J. Reynolds Tobacco were not dwelling on business-related issues.

''We have not had a single discussion related to the business aspects,'' Rick Sanders, president of sports marketing for R.J. Reynolds Tobacco, told the Observer. ''Our focus is how can we help the family?''

Earnhardt's appeal to working-class consumers was his personality, which was gritty and genuine.

''Think about a young, arrogant kid quitting high school in a North Carolina mill town,'' Cotter said. ''It's a formula for failure. He was destined to live his life out in a trailer home and work as a laborer.''

Funeral services set for Thursday

CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- A private funeral service for Dale Earnhardt will be held Thursday at Calvary Church in Charlotte.

The church will open at 10 a.m., and the 30-minute service will begin at noon. The service is open to immediate family, employees and sponsors of Dale Earnhardt Inc. and Richard Childress Racing, NASCAR Winston Cup teams and tracks, and NASCAR.

Earnhardt, a seven-time Winston Cup champion, was killed in a last-lap crash during Sunday's Daytona 500.

''Because it is impossible to accommodate the tremendous outpouring of support from those who followed Dale, we are unable to open the service to the public,'' NASCAR said Tuesday in a statement.

''With that in mind the family has chosen to broadcast the service live on television, enabling fans across the country to share in this service for Dale.''

The service will be broadcast live on Fox Sports Net.

This article published in the Athens Daily News on Wednesday, February 21, 2001.